MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Warning about Mercosur “institutional weakness”

“Mercosur institutional weakness is unsustainable and conspires against the results that could be obtained” Uruguay's future Minister of Economy Danilo Astori said this Thursday during a forum on “The challenge of a shared prosperity” in Montevideo.

The notorious weakness of the four country block (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) makes it act "more like four countries than a supranational entity".

Mr. Astori anticipated that Uruguay will work "intensely" to improve the functioning of Mercosur and announced some of the proposals and reforms in that direction.

Uruguay's future Economy minister underlined that the institutional strengthening needs "to progress with the controversies solution process" as well as keep "advancing towards a Mercosur Parliament, beginning with a Parliamentary Committee".

"Obviously our goals are a free trade and a customs union which effectively works as such", highlighted Mr. Astori.

During the next Mercosur summit scheduled for next December 17 in Ouro Preto, Brazil, several institutional reforms will be considered and current President Jorge Batlle has invited Uruguayan elected president Tabare Vazquez to be present at the meeting.

Eduardo Duhalde, president of Mercosur Permanent Representatives Committee admitted that there are considerable delays in the institutional agenda because of the recent intense international activities of the region's Foreign Affairs ministries but "we are confident that we can make it up".

Abel Caballero, a former Spanish Transport Minister also participating in the forum anticipated a "great future for Mercosur in a world of large economies", and compared Montevideo's role with that of Brussels in the European Union.

Furthermore he said that the great challenge for Spain is "to act as a bridge between Mercosur and the EU".